October 8, 2001

First Lady Laura Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Laura -

Please, please, woman to woman, please take a look at what really happened on 9/11 (that's actually 9-1-1!). Those terrorist guys are dead, and many Americans. And we have gotten by with lots during the last 30 years. Note particularly our action in Vietnam, terrorism at its worst-we get to go in and bomb and strafe, use Agent Orange-a chemical weapon--and then just leave, leaving the entire region in tatters-people sinking on leaky rafts, refugee camps throughout Thailand, the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields. We did it because we could and nobody could stop us, they didn't have planes to bomb New York City. And America armed the Afghans against the Russians, bin Laden being one of them, just to keep the Russians occupied, because they were the bad guys then, leaving one million civilians dead-just so we could just have a little Cold War game. Maybe that's the reason bin Laden hates us, maybe he remembers! Maybe he wants Americans on the ground like he was, feeling terrified. Those Afghani people probably were feeling plenty of terror over a decade, sitting in refugee camps in rags, no education, barely enough to eat. These are just examples of how we push our weight around the world. Then now, as we bomb and strafe their citizens, we're so nice as to feed them as well-using military might just to get humanitarian aid in! Just because it happened to us now we don't have to continue to make more terror, be terrorists ourselves. We don't even know who we're firing at, for God's sake! More acts such as Sunday's bombing does not make those at the WTC come back alive, and I absolutely know they would want as few people as possible to ever feel what they felt. Doesn't anyone know that? These are just examples of how we push our weight around and the whole world gets to see this. Americans are good and brave and caring but it's our foreign policy that stinks. And we still don't get it! And our Secretary of Defense says they did not shoot down a plane, he's a Taliban, he's a liar and he's a terrorist since he harbors a terrorist. Maybe he's a guy who would like the human right to have on his soil whomever he pleases. The brand new Communist, the enemy of America. That's despicable! The message is coming through to the world loud and clear: The Americans will do anything they want so they can have their little way of life and they'll do anything to get it, even as they see the pain they cause in filthy refugee camps, even with winter coming on and people having bread and water to eat and drink.

As an example with the COLE. Say I'm two patriotic Yemeni, see that huge useless battleship filling up with oil. I don't have so much as a gun, but I'm coming home dead-tired from slaving the fields while my own government fills up with American dollars and doesn't even take care of me because they don't have to. He has the money and the guns and the Americans keep giving him more. So one day I feel abused enough, angry enough, tired enough just to vent anger in a patriotic way., or maybe I'm just so ticked off, I'll show people there's things that "little" me can do, and I climb in a little rubber dingy. Then American chases her tail running around looking for "cells" of people with nothing better to do with their minds than hate her. And the same analogy applies with Israel. Israel has the guns, gets to establish the curfews and checkpoints, I, a Palestinian, get sick and tired of it and decide to do a "terrorist" act and pick up a rock. They keep shooting, I have lots and lots of rocks. Now, as a result of my acts, at least the world is looking at me-and the Israelis aren't taking any more of my land. And I may have died but I died with my human dignity back.

We have put people "friendly" to us in the Middle East, for example in Egypt, filled useless desert land with bristling military bases, pointy airplanes, nice housing and schools for our personnel.-what are we protecting? We give the current friendly leader $2 billion a year in "military" aid, he doesn't even take notice of his own people as he lives in a nice house. Egyptian people are ticked off, see the only reason he's in power is because he has the guns, and we get to sink in mud to our knees along the Nile. The guy in the mud sees there's nothing he can do about it, sees that Las Vegas strip with casino after casino-and even Americans know that's wrong. Sees rich Americans in those cute little boats on the Nile while I get to make their beds and wash up the dishes.

He decides the world is never going to get better for Egyptians-and I'm a patriot, not a terrorist--if the current policy continues. He decides to get together with some friends, decides if America had to take notice of excesses in her foreign policy, was busy with her own problems, maybe he had a chance in the future. He doesn't think of himself as a terrorist, he's a patriot. He thinks maybe if America had to be busy at home she'd get off our backs. So he knows asking, even begging, isn't going to work-if the U.S. Embassy isn't even reporting what's happening-if America doesn't care enough about the world to do something about global warming as the superpower she pretends to be should--that Egyptians there couldn't help but hate the U.S. for a selfish, self-interest foreign policy just so they can build yet another military base to protect the oil. So he gets on an airplane with a little sharp knife. That's one of those "cells" of ticked off people out there-and smart bombs and radar aren't going to find them.

Russia finally had to stop being a superpower, pulled down the wall, is doing better now I hope seeing since she's not out there everywhere making trouble she has less fanny to protect and when she did that the rest of the people she was being super over are better of as well and she has fewer ticked off "terrorists" in Eastern Europe she has to protect against as well. All we have to do is drastically rethink our foreign policy, stop trying to be a superpower all over the world, pull down our wall. We have to send a vast diplomatic mission to try to work with Middle Eastern leaders, at least learn what their concerns are, try, try to work this out diplomatically. We have to. We can't have elaborate security, paste those bombs in like on Sunday, then have heightened security all afternoon, then try to determine if we have enough to hold a Columbus Day parade. There are more of those little guys in "cells" out there just like on 9/11, saying don't push us around any more. Then coming to work today I see we get some more bases in the Philippines, costing more money, a brand-new whole bureaucracy of homeland security-who's paying for this.? Please, please, woman to woman, talk to your husband, try to give us a brand-new chance. We have to wake up and learn a new way-that way, 9/11 doesn't have to happen again. "They" can get us anywhere already, we build concrete barriers around the State Department trying to keep somebody out that doesn't like us, has a gun, is a terrorist. But if we seriously show we are starting over, thinking internally as a peaceful nation not a worldwide bully, at least we can wind up having one less person hate us, if we stop taking one more hateful action. That's what really happened on 9/11. We get to stop being a bully, being a superpower. I'm so relieved. As an example, of a result of Sunday's bombing run, Afghan-Americans were very upset. They're patriotic Americans but they also have friends and family in Afghanistan they're concerned about, and we've caused more pain and anguish and terror as we shoot bombs from acres of warships. Is this crazy? How are the rest of the Arab-Americans going to be feeling shortly if we go further, that we don't find all the training camps there, go after some more in the next country? Please, please, have him just rethink things. And furthermore Sunday was an act of war, a violation of rules of international conflict, wasn't even legal. It's exactly like Hitler invading Poland and we want to continue doing it exactly as he did-moving further and further, telling countries what governments they should establish, who their leaders should be, how much oil they can ship. See, we should be learning we can't tell anybody that any more.

He could get out right now, say there's no reason for retaliating, is not going to be doing things back that add to more terror, because what is a terrorist if not one who causes terror. And remember once we were asking: Who's the Commie, where's the Commie? He's causing those poor, poor Afghan people terror on a daily basis. You want to know something? Despicable as that act was I thought we'd get the point-we've known for decades our Middle Eastern policy stinks-that we should act in the world with dignity, you can't do it mindlessly to us any more, in a new global setting we can always get you, if you don't want to act responsibly in the world we'll make you-and President Bush's global warning policy showed he has no interest in the rest of the world. But just shooting off your mouth and Rumsfeld issuing threats, that makes us look like fools. Haven't the Americans learned there are other methods? That's the real question.

Thank you very much.

Very truly yours, Joan

cc: Nancy Pelosi
Barbara Boxer
Dianne Feinstein
Colin Powell
Donald Rumsfeld
Al Cheney
Mrs. Al Cheney
Willie Brown
Jerry Brown
Gray Davis
Rudy Guiliani
Secretary General of the United Nations
United States Representative to the United Nations
San Francisco Chronicle - Op Ed Page
Oakland Tribune - Op ed Page
FBI Director
CIA Director
Senator Hillary Clinton
Barbara Boxer
Washington Post
New York Times
San Jose Mercury

Return to the Patriots of Truth Speak Out Main Page